The present invention relates to a multi-nozzle ink jet print head in which each nozzle is carried by a capillary tube of substantially rigid material on which a sleeve-type piezoelectric transducer is fitted, comprising a hollow body for carrying the capillary tubes, in which a first portion of the transducers is enclosed in a resin capable of holding the nozzles in a fixed position with respect to the hollow body.
The invention further relates to a method of manufacture of such a print head and an apparatus which can be used in a phase of the manufacturing method.
Multi-nozzle print heads are known in which the various transducers are enclosed in a single body made of resin. In such heads, the capillary tube is normally formed by the transducer, in part, while the remainder of the capillary tube and the associated nozzle are formed directly in the resin, for example by means of suitable cores. However the nozzles of such heads are not very precise and they suffer from rapid deterioration in use, so that the preference is normally to use capillary tubes which are prefabricated from metal material or glass, with the sleeve-like transducers being a close fit thereon or being fixed thereon by means of glue or resin.
In such heads therefore, positioning of the individual capillary tubes requires a high degree of precision, both with respect to the body of the head and with respect to parallelism and relative positioning with respect to each other. In addition the electrical connection of the various transducers to their control circuit makes the head complicated and expensive to build.